Construction on Lake Barkley Water District’s water improvement projects started last week and is on schedule so far, it was said at the district’s monthly board meeting Monday afternoon.

Louis Robbins is an engineer for GRW, an engineering firm used by the board, and he said both contractors are working, and 6,000 feet of line have already been installed. The contractor working on the plant expansion have already dug a large hole already, added Robbins.

“They’re making good progress, and everything seems to be going well,” Robbins said. “We’ve got some great contractors to work with.”

The current 8-inch and 12-inch water lines, which connect Lake Barkley to the plant, will be replaced with a 16-inch ductile iron raw water line, said Lake Barkley Water District Manager Terry Goins, who also said that the pipes will all have to be installed by April next year.

Goins added that most of the ductile pipe should be installed by January or February.

The other phase involves upgrades and renovations to the Lake Barkley Water Treatment Plant, including an increase of the plant capacity from 2 million gallons to 4 million gallons per day, Goins said.

The entire project is set to cost about $7.5 million when all is said and done.

Goins also said that the district’s water tap fees will be increased from $450 to $800 on Dec. 1, pending approval of the fee change by the Kentucky Public Service Commission. The water tap fee, Goins stated, is charged when a new house is built and the owner wants to connect it to the district’s water main.

It costs the district $800 to dig up the main and install a connecting pipe to the new house, and before the district was losing $350 on every new water tap installation, said Goins, who added that the fee change has already been published in The Cadiz Record and will be published two more times before it is set to take effect.